Consider $16,894,030 Or $11 Million Reason To shun Becoming Kyrie Irving Of Brooklyn Nets

So, with Kyrie Irving’s bank account looking shakier than his Brooklyn Nets, he is due to rejoin his dysfunctional team as supposedly a redeemed man Sunday night at home against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Yeah, well.

Don’t miss the point.

After Irving lost all that money in a flash before the entire universe for operating as a knucklehead or worse when it came to offending a whole group of people regarding an antisemitic movie, his financial whipping was a message to everybody else as much as it was to the guy who believes the earth is flat.

Here’s that message, especially to those with high profile similar to an NBA player like Irving who signed a four-year contract in 2019 with the Nets worth $141 million: You shouldn’t go there. You shouldn’t even think about doing such a harmful thing as Irving, which was to post a since-deleted tweet that linked to a documentary about Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories about Jews.

In addition, you shouldn’t contemplate resembling Irving in the beginning of his controversy. He refused to apologize after two news conference and a public statement until he suddenly realized his bank account was threatening to go from millions to thousands to don’t even ask.

Afterward, Irving sort of apologized. Before that, he was lulled into thinking he could say a bunch of things such as, if you aren’t careful, you could either walk or drive too far before falling off the edge of the planet.

“Let me be blunt. We live in a free country, so you ought to be able to think and say whatever you want,” astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson told Rolling Stones of Irving’s comments in March 2017 that suggested Irving will never take Tyson’s job, and Tyson shrugged. “If he wants to think earth is flat, go right ahead – as long as he continues to play basketball and not become head of any space agencies.”

It’s just that, instead of Irving sticking to his theories on the cosmos, he tried to sound like he had deep knowledge of the Jewish race and religion, but his initial comments over that antisemitic movie showed otherwise.

The consequences were swift, and consider that few athletes not named Tiger (as in Woods) or Michael (as Jordan) helped Nike make more money than Irving. In fact, his signature shoe with the company has earned him at least $11 million per year since 2014.

Not any more, with co-founder Phil Knight telling reporters last week, “I would doubt that we would go back (to Irving), but I don’t know for sure. Kyrie stepped over the line. It’s kind of that simple. He made some statements that we just can’t abide by and that’s why we ended the relationship, and I was fine with that.”

Goodbye, Kyrie 8, which was slated to make its Nike debut this month as the latest of his signature shoes. The Nets also suspended Irving without pay for his infamous tweet, which meant that after he hit the five-game minimum of that punishment, he reportedly was out of $1.258 million.

Even beyond Irving’s movie/tweet mess draining his pockets, there has been enough other Kyrie Kraziness during his dozen NBA season to cost him $16,894,030 through fines for everything from technical fouls to the use of profane gestures against Celtics fans in Boston to sacrificing game checks of more than $300,0000 when he refused a vaccination shot last season for COVID virus.

“Kyrie is continuing his journey of dialogue and education,” NBA executive director Tamika Tremaglio told ESPN Wednesday night. “He has been grappling with the full weight of the impact of his voice and actions, particularly in the Jewish community. Kyrie rejects antisemitism in any form, and he’s dedicated to bettering himself and increasing his level of understanding. He plans to continue this journey well into the future to ensure that his words and actions align with his pursuit of truth and knowledge.”

Morally (and financially), Irving has zero choice.